Julian hikes up his hundred

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Cape Town - At the foot of
Group B, captain Austin Smith’s spirited South Africa men’s hockey side face
yet another massive challenge when they take on skilled, second-placed
Argentina at 10.30am today (live on SuperSport) in the teams’ last
preliminary round match at World Cup 2014 in The Hague, Holland.

It is also a massive match for SA striker Julian Hykes, who will join Rhett
Halkett and Wade Paton in notching up his 100th Test match at this
four-yearly showpiece of the game.

East London-born Hykes, a man with fearsome pace when in possession, has – like
the rest of the SA forwards - not hit his straps yet and will be going all out
to make this a match to cherish. The right-handed batsman and fast-medium
bowler played two first-class cricket matches for Border and knows full well
what hitting the sweet spot means, whether it be wielding the willow or a
carbon-fibre hockey stick.

The men from the Pampas, or Los Leones

(The Lions) as Argentina are
called at home, will make certain of a semi-final berth if they beat SA while
the African champions need at minimum a draw - and will then hope against hope
that double Olympic champs Germany beat South Korea in the following match in
order for Smith’s lads to play for ninth spot on Saturday instead of the wooden
spoon 11th/12th clash on Thursday.

Indeed, if SA draw with Argentina, and Germany beat Korea, the South Americans
will be blown out of the semi-finals at the expense of the Germans. But
everything depends on SA drawing or beating Argentina, so it’s a massive,
massive match.

Reflecting on the 7-1 defeat by the fabulous Holland side on Sunday night,
Smith expressed his appreciation for the crowd’s fair play. “The Dutch hockey
public are very knowledgeable and also cheer on the opposition. It was one of
the most memorable experiences of my career,” said Smith.

“It was a special feeling. I play against their players in the Hoofdklasse [Dutch Premier League] but playing against all 18 of them at one time is very,
very tough. When you are playing against a team who were more skilled and
quicker, it is not easy”

Head coach Fabian Gregory said the SA players brought a lot of energy to the
Dutch match and is expecting the same against the Argentines, but while
praising his charges for their legwork expressed discontent with the
unnecessary mistakes.

If the SA men can clean that up, they will have more possession with which to
do the Argentines damage.

Meanwhile, the Investec SA women’s team were desperately unfortunate to be
shaded 4-3 by world number seven China in their Group B match on Sunday in a
match where unforced basic errors were punished with relish by the nippy
Asians. SA goalscoring opportunities were squandered, too.

There are lies, damned lies and then come statistics, but in this case the
numbers tell a story of what might have been. SA had a massive advantage of 21
entries into the strike zone to China’s eight and 13 shots at goal to China’s
seven; the difference was that the winners were on target 85% of the time to
SA’s 46%. SA had seven penalty corners to the Asians’ five; the difference was
that China scored two for an efficiency rate of 40% to SA’s lone goal and a
success rate of 14%. Enough said.

Bottom-placed world number three England face a hurting Germany Tuesday,
straight after the tournament’s revelation, the world’s 10th -ranked
USA, who top Group B, face SA in the 2.30pm clash. SA need at least draw with
the Americans to force England out of the battle for fifth place.

Head coach Giles Bonnet’s SA girls beat Champions Challenge winners USA 2-1 in
a preliminary round match at that tournament in Glasgow just a month ago.

There is no doubt that SA can do it. Providing they bring their A game to the
turf.

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